Friday premieres: 'Ex-List,' 'Life,' 'Wife'
As for everything else Friday night ... um ... did I mention "Ghost Whisperer" did fine?
CBS won Friday night with its drama lineup, starting with "Whisperer" (9.3 million viewers, 2.4 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and a 6 share), which matched its year-ago premiere.
Then came "The Ex-List" (6.9 million, 2.0/6, review here). Angry fans of "Moonlight," your curses appear to have succeeded. The show was down 17% from the premiere of "Moonlight" in the time period last year. That weak lead-in left "Numb3rs" (8.1 million, 2.1/7) down 19% at 10 p.m.
ABC hoped to steal the night from CBS by shifting its reality stalwarts "Wife Swap" (3.8 million, 1.3/5) and "Supernanny" (4.2 million, 1.5/5) to Fridays, but both shows are down double digits (-23% and -40%) from "20/20" and "Women's Murder Club" in these respective time periods a year ago. At 10 p.m., ABC aired "20/20" (6.8 million, 1.9/6).
NBC and Fox tied for third. NBC also tried to gain new traction on Fridays by shaking up its lineup. But "America's Toughest Jobs" (3.4 million, 1.0/3) was the lowest-rated show on a major network last night, followed by the time-periods premiere of "Deal or No Deal" (6.3 million, 1.5/5, down 29%). At 10 p.m., the time-period premiere "Life" (5.4 million, 1.6/5) was hard hit by its shift from Monday to Friday, down 40% from its debut and down 36% from "Las Vegas" in the time period last year.
Fox aired "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" (5.8 million, 1.3/5) and "Don't Forget the Lyrics" (5.4 million 1.4/4).